Medication Errors and
Medicines Optimisation
RECORDING HARM FROM RESTRAINT
TO THE NATIONAL REPORTING AND
LEARNING SYSTEM (NRLS)
Vanessa Gordon, Head of
Patient Safety Mental Health,
Learning Disability and Offender
Health, NHS England
Carol Boreham, Patient Safety
Reporting Lead, National
Reporting and Learning System
Contents
• Current data about restraint in the NRLS
• Prone restraint reporting pilot (2014)
• Review of current restraint reporting
requirements for NRLS
• A new guidance document for reporting
organisations
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Current data about restraint in the NRLS
• Not attached to a restraint code
• Only mentioned in the free text of another incident
• No degree of harm available
• Little description or investigation details
Therefore the generation of learning about
incidents resulting from restraint is not possible
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Prone restraint reporting pilot (2014)
• The aim of this pilot was to record the incidence
and associated stories of all prone restraint
events over a six week period in 3 Trusts (2 MH, 1
Acute)
• All fields, including the degree of harm and the
investigation information on the prone restraint
incident form should be relating to the restraint
itself
• 5 questions asked of the reporters for each
incident provided extra learning
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Results of the Prone Restraint Pilot
• Prone restraint incidents were successfully
reported to the NRLS and the learning has
generated an Alert
• In two Trusts PMVA leads managed the quality of
the data reported
• Feedback from the MH organisations was
negative around the time taken to report, although
the learning was useful. MH Trusts concerned
about all Prone restraint being considered a PSI
• Acute Trust has adopted the pilot process and
now routinely collects the 5 question learning for
restraint incidents
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Review of current restraint reporting
requirements for NRLS
• Any incident where the local restraint
policy is not followed
• Any incident where restraint resulted in
harm to the patient
• The code used to map these incidents for
NRLS is N1100 (restraint)
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A new guidance document for reporting
organisations
When restraint is performed for any
reason whilst a person is receiving NHS
funded care and physical harm occurs,
even low harm, this is and has always
been reportable to the NRLS as a
separate incident to the original incident
that led to restraint. This applies to any
type of physical restraint. If the restraint
is part of a care plan, it is still
reportable if it causes harm to the
patient.
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All fields, including the incident description, degree
of harm and the investigation information should be
relating to the restraint itself. The degree of harm
should be the actual harm to the patient resulting
from the restraint.
The incident description should contain:
• The type or types of restraint used
• The duration of each type of restraint
• The events leading up to the restraint being used
• Details about the harm to the patient
• Details about what physical observations were
undertaken and recorded during the restraint
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Local Risk Management System changes
• Organisations without a restraint incident type in
their listing should add it
• This incident type should be mapped to N1100
(restraint)
• The NRLS Team provides helpdesk staff for
advice and guidance to Trusts
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Fresh start for restraint reporting to NRLS
• All organisations in all care settings to be asked to
report harm from restraint from April 2015
• All organisations in all care settings to ensure that
restraint incidents are reported to the N1100 code.
This will position the learning in a defined location
in the NRLS to allow access
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Contact
Further information about the NRLS can be found
at: www.nrls.nhs.uk
The NRLS Reporting site can be found at:
https://report.nrls.nhs.uk/nrlsreporting
For NRLS Helpdesk enquiries, complete a contact
form on the NRLS Reporting site or email
[email protected]
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